Wimbledon: 'I normally delete Twitter from my phone during the big competitions,' says Andy Murray

Having won his first two matches, Murray now turns his attention to John Millman

(Getty)

Andy Murray has his own way of avoiding social media trolls. The world No 2 takes Twitter off his phone during big tournaments and indeed can recall using it only once in the last three months.

Heather Watson said after her defeat by Annika Beck on Thursday that she wanted to punish herself by going on Twitter to read what had been said about her. “There’s always going to be people saying stuff,” Watson said. “You’ve just got to deal with it. They’re not brave enough to say it in person. That’s why they hide behind a computer.”

Murray, however, avoids the possibility of reading such comments. “I normally delete Twitter from my phone during the big competitions,” he said. “If there is something I want to read about on Twitter then I just Google it, so I don’t read anything about myself. What’s the point?

“Obviously there are a lot of people who give you support, but Twitter is not always the most pleasant place to hang out, so you try to avoid it as much as you can. The thing that is important at times like that, after a tough loss or a disappointing defeat, is to be around the people you like, your family. They are the ones who are hurting with you and who really care about the result and make you feel better.

“It is tempting [to go on Twitter] because that is the kind of world we live in now. Social media now, everyone is on it, it’s huge. But there is a time and a place for it. I think when you have lost a difficult match it’s best to stay away.”

Murray added: “I think I’ve been on Twitter once in the last three months. That was after Marcus Willis’s match, because it was just such a great story and amazing to see that.”

Having won his first two matches in straight sets, Murray now turns his attention to his third-round opponent, Australia’s John Millman. The 27-year-old world No 67, who has never been higher than No 60 in the rankings, has played Murray once before, in his home tournament in Brisbane three years ago, when he was the world No 191. Murray won over three hard-fought sets.

Murray celebrates with the Wimbledon crowd (Getty)

“I didn't know him before we played in Brisbane,” Murray said. “He played extremely well that day. I came off the court and I said to Dani Vallverdu, who I was working with at the time: ‘He's top 50 for sure if he keeps going.’

“He moves well. He has a great attitude. He's played a few good matches there in Brisbane. He played a great match against Roger Federer there a few years ago, too. But this is obviously a different surface, a different place. The match-up will be a bit different on a grass court, as well.”

Millman broke into the world’s top 100 for the first time last summer. He has never reached a tour-level final and until this week had won only one match at Wimbledon.